Weed Scene | Wild Vegetable Gathering
Today is our wild vegetable party.
Participants: Yan Zi, Yang Mi, Li Zhenhao, A Gua, Fei Bi, Xiao Qi.
In the afternoon, when Sister Feibi arrived, I was drawing a poster for the Wild Vegetable Club. I drew a picture of myself lying on the ground. I drew a "Spring". "Spring" is a monster with long ears, wild flowers in its belly, and wild vegetables in its hands. Then I gave the pen to Sister Feibi, and she drew shepherd's purse and dandelions next to it.
We went to dig wild vegetables behind the house.
Sister Feibi was concentrating on collecting vegetables in a small field. I wandered around and found that the wild vegetables near the ditch were more juicy, so I told Sister Feibi to move to another field.
She pinched the tip of a slender wild pea and said, "The wild peas I have here are also good."
Me: “You really haven’t seen good stuff!”
My original task was to dig up a lot of shepherd's purse, but there were so many kinds of wild vegetables in the fields that I ended up picking 13 kinds.
We classified each species: wild pea, golden buckwheat, gray-gray grass, a plant from the Liao family (which I ate in Vietnam), cardamine, shepherd's purse, wild spinach, mousetail, wild sunflower, horsetail orchid, ground lettuce, water celery, and chickweed.
Just as we were sorting these wild vegetables, Yan Zi came. The bracken in her basket was very fat, and the chickweed and wild peas in her basket were several times thicker than what Sister Feibi and I had picked.
While pouring out her plump wild vegetables, Yan Zi laughed at me and Sister Feibi who were squatting on the ground: "You guys are playing house."
Haha, she talked as if she wasn't playing house herself.
After a while, Xiaoxi and Yangmi also arrived. Yangmi's backpack was full of Buddleja buds, and her basket was filled with small alfalfa. She said it took her a long time to pick these. I can understand, alfalfa is small, and it takes patience to pick them one by one.
While we were washing wild vegetables, the swallows went to the field behind the house again. They picked up plump water celery and alfalfa. They also told me that they grew by the ditch. I don't know why, but whenever the swallows picked something, I always want to describe it as plump.
Yang Mi was in charge of making alfalfa, coating it with flour and steaming it. I used some of the shepherd's purse to make meatballs, which I kept aside and put into the hot pot later. Yan Zi was in charge of making the omelette with Artemisia selengensis and Chickweed. Yan Zi said that this dish was a memory of her hometown, as she is from Fujian.
I fried the bracken and then soaked it in cold water. It took three days to completely remove the bitterness.
Sister Phoebe was concentrating on cleaning her mini assorted plate. She also wanted a plant that none of us recognized but looked edible.
Around five in the evening, Xiao Qi arrived, bringing with him a bottle of white wine, a tray of eggs, and a bunch of cherry blossoms.
Xiaoqi's gift also included a whistle made of willow bark. When I blew it, it sounded a bit like farting. Later, Agua summed it up in one sentence: "This thing is really ugly, but also fun."
Li Zhenhao led the team today. It was already past seven when they came down the mountain, but she still insisted on making the twice-cooked pork she had prepared. The wild vegetables Li Zhenhao and Agua brought were gray-gray vegetables, willow buds and nettles, which they had collected in the morning. But because there were too many vegetables and it was getting late, they didn't make the willow bud salad.
We put the nettles in the hot pot. Before eating, everyone touched its thorns. Xiaoqi put it on the back of her hand. After being picked and washed, the nettles did become less prickly, just like me.
Now I am lying on the bed and writing, trying to record today without spending too much time.
The music played was Chara's "きえる" that Feibi mentioned an hour ago. Feibi felt that Chara could control her voice very freely, whether it was square or flat. Feibi wanted to learn music. She sent me a recording of Feibi singing. Her voice was pure and a little childish. There was no accompaniment, and I could vaguely hear the gentle chirping of a few birds in the ambient sound.
I hope that when I am in my forties, I can still sing songs as lovely as Feibi does now.
nettle
When eating nettles, Yang Mi suffered from urticaria.
Amaranthus
Gray vegetable
A plant of the family Leucaceae
Chickweed
